Hi Folks,

Been a long time lurker (hate that word!) finally decided to take the plunge and contribute. Have you heard about this ridiculous behaviour by Best Buy? Check it out:

Be careful the next time you try to buy a DVD at Best Buy, you may
walk out in handcuffs!:
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/20...0424011358.htm

http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&...vd%26num%3D100


I apologize if this has been posted before...

Welcome to leaving lurkerdom and joining the posting community!

(Like your name)

And who exactly has been arrested? Not to defend BB for their handling of that whole GeForce4 fiasco, but I've never seen an actual report of this. I'm sure if you go in there demanding your product and causing a big freaking scene, they're going to kick your ass out, and possibly have you arrested for tresspassing if you don't leave, but that's a far cry from throwing people in jail who come to pick up their order. No cop in the country is going to do that.

Thanks for the welcome!.
Wait until you see the new spiderman movie. Then you will know where I got the name from!

Check it out here. They have a scanned copy of the arrest document as well as the name of the person arrested.

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.co...y_gf4deal.html

1) It's an incident report, not an "arrest document"

2) It's for "criminal tresspass". I don't care how screwed you think you're getting, if someone tells you to get off their property, you have to leave. If you have a problem, that what the civil courts are for.

Randy,
I do not mean to attack BestBuy, and I apologize if you are a BestBuy employee and my post offended you. I read about this incident on usenet in alt.video.dvd and thought that it was interesting enough to share with the rest of the forum members here.

1. The website does not say that the customer created a scene. All he did was to present the pickup notice and the manager went to the back of the store ancd called the police. The police report does not say that the customer created a scene either.

2. So in your opinion, if a customer sees a price advertised and tries to buy it at that price BestBuy will ask him to leave the store, and threaten to call the cops?

The article states that they are being arrested for criminal fraud, so it's not simply a case of unruly customers. Besides, store security can escort them out.

The price was advertised repeatedly, both online and in flyers. This is simply another example of a company having their way with the consumers, with the full backing of the state.

You see the problem is that if they advertise it at a price they have to honor it. There was a big fiasco a while back. Circuit City advertised Max Payne (PC) for $14.99. The original price was 49.99. Circuit City said that they would not honor the price. So I called the BBB and they got into it with CC. Finally they gave me the game for that price. Best Buy can't have people arrested for trying to claim their item or buying something that is mispriced. How do they know that it is mispriced? If they have it advertised athen I would think that that's what they are selling it for.

This is terrible. I have had my own share of bad experiences at best buy with the in-store pickup option. When MadMax was released I had ordered it for in-store pickup. The next day I got an e-mail from them that they did not have it in stock. I drove over to the store and saw that they had tons of it on the shelves. Just to make sure that they did not receive the shipment after they sent the e-mail to me, I asked a sales guy when they received the discs. He replied that they received them on street date. So they were basically lying their butts off. After numerous complaints at their 800 number and trips to the store finally they gave it to me. The CSR at the 800 number said that the store that I picked was averse to participating in in-store pickups. Then why do they have to offer that option?

I think BB hates customers (or maybe they just hate colored people?) I am from India. I noticed that the guy who got arrested is from India as well.

I don't think BB discriminates against any one race. They just hate their customers.

I would advise not buying stuff at Best Buy.com and using that "in-store pickup". The whole setup seemed half-assed from day one (it fits right in with the company). Its not the ordering part that bothers me, its the fact that you have to rely on the people (a.k.a idiots) who work at the store near you to fill your order correctly.


And Lasermovies is right, its customers that Best Buy hates.

As a self-proclaimed "Best Buy mark", I'll only add that:

* I didn't read the link because No one can be arrested for taking advantage of a pricing error.

* Best Buy security cannot escort you out but they can ask you to leave. (There is a difference)

* This person was prolly arrested for criminal trespass. Best Buy can ask you to leave and they do have the right to call the police and have you arrested.

* Best Buy prolly does not hate their customers, after all, without us they would go out of business. It's only the theif's and unruly people they do not care for.

What does POWERBOMB alway's say about shopping? [i]It is a privilage not an inalieable right.

But the arrest (or incident report whatever) specifically stated that the guy was an 'unidentified indian male'. Why in the world would you want to include his ethnicity, since u already had his name?

i remember reading about this on some other forums. what happened was the guy came in trying to get the gforce4 at the 179(correct?) price that was advertised online(not on any flyers) several weeks ago. To do the pricematch he brought in a bunch of reciepts printed off the net from ppl who managed to get the vid card at that price.

Now what the manager did was take him to the back room, and look through these reciepts. The manager then got another manager to call the cops and take the guy to the station.

The funny thing is that in this guys story , he mentions several times that these cops that took him in are black and so was the lady that helped him out. Its like he wanted to emphasize it. hahah

Anyway, i think the fraud charge comes from the manager not knowing wether or not the reciepts were doctored or not. I mean, anybody could post a scan of a best buy reciept and change the prices right? The charge was changed to tresspassing after he was already being held at the station.

I think thats about how it went if i remmber correctly. Some ppl are getting into a big huff over this, but i think it was just a misunderstanding. i dont think anyone should use reciepts printed off the net if they dont know the person who its coming from.

Well, I can't quite make out the whole report (combination of bad scan and it keeps "smearing" on my screen), but here is my take:

The man was indeed arrested, it states so on the report. Although I would like to see a booking report from the jail to see if he was released after investigation (detained) or actually processed in.

He was indeed "arrested" (see above) for some form of fraud. He was NOT arrested for trespass. It looks like he was cited for trespass AFTER the arrest. This is based on the fact that a Detective directed the responding Officer to transport the man to CID (Criminal Investigations Division) for "further investigation." A Detective would not become involved in something as simple as a criminal trespass. The trespass notation comes as an afterthought on the report, not the basis of the report. It does not state that he was arrested for creating a disturbance, it specifically states that he was transported at the direction of the Detective.

I hope to hell that he has already retained an attorney and is going after both Best Buy and the police department. I hate to encourage anybody to sue a police department (most of these cases are frivolous), but I think he has a pretty good case.

Best Buy simply hates their customers.

So you are saying this guy was "indeed" arrested for "some form of fraud and is being investigated by a detective. And you hope he gets an attorney to sue Best Buy and the police.

Okay, initially I had typed a sacastic remark. But I deleted it to go with this. Judging from the amount of paperwork that goes into an arrest, I think the cops prolly saw enough evidence of fraud that they arrested this guy. Therefore, he is not one that is worthy of any sympathy. Cops escort people out of stores more often than not, so the fact this guy was arrested indicates he was doing something very bad. {Please spare me the "innocent until proven guilty" speech. I'm simply saying there was enough there to make an arrest}

Your last quote and the previous threads you have communicated on makes it clear that you were prolly screwed by Best Buy and you don't care for the company much. That's understandable. But you shouldn't encourage this type of behavior. This guy may have set out to screw Best Buy. He got caught. He wasn't the lucky guy who got a deal because of a cashier mistake or a pricing error, he is prolly a con artist of some sort and he was caught.

I personally hope that the legal system throws the book at him and makes an example of his crime.

P.S., You still can not be arrested for taking advantage of a pricing error.

A little hasty in proclaiming judgment aren't we old chap? The web site reports that the police let the guy go after they got an explanation of what really happened. If he had indeed committed a "crime" as you so moralistically claim, the police would not have let him go.

I guess if you ever serve on jury duty, you would proclaim the defendant as guilty even before you review the case.

I don't think it is racist listing a person's ethnicity on a report. I think they were using it to help describe the person in question. I am sure if the guy was white they would have mentioned it. My local newspaper ran a weekly crime report for people who were arrested and race was always included with their profiles.

I'm not fully convinced that an actual "arrest" occurred (sorry if that wasn't clear in my last post). It sounds more like he was detained and transported (there is a difference). For an arrest to occur, there would need to be a Miranda warning, an arrest report, booking slips from the jail, etc. If indeed he was actually arrested, I hope he does. If he was detained and transported, I think this was a little excessive, but fully legal. It is similar to a cop removing you from your vehicle to write you a speeding ticket. Only in this case he would have removed you from your vehicle and driven you to the station to do so. Excessive? Yes.

And the lack of paperwork leads me to believe that he wasn't actually arrested (see above). You are right in stating that guilt/innocence has nothing to do with an arrest. But, using that same logic, given the information that we have, Best Buy and the police department were in the wrong. This guy could only be guilty of fraud if he manufactured the documentation, which is what Best Buy was wrongly alleging, and the police were wrongly believeing. Monday Morning Quarterbacking the police of this country has become a national past-time due to abuses of the system. Was this an abuse? I don't think so, but it was surely poor judgment on the Detective's part. And I won't even play the race card, because I'm not convinced that it is applicable here, though it cannot be ruled out be the information we have.

Have I been screwed by Best Buy? Not that I can think of off the top of my head. Have I had bad experiences? Yeah, we ALL have. What I am fed up with is corporations (retail and otherwise) making up their own rules as they go and not being held to legal standards (conusmer protection laws, etc.). Did this guy set out to screw Best Buy? No, he wanted the offer that they made to him and millions of other customers. The deal that Best Buy confirmed on several occasions to many different sources. If he wanted to do something illegal and screw Best Buy he would have gone in and stolen the card or switched the price tag with another product (still shoplifting). Did he get caught? No, because he was not doing anything to be "caught" at. A cashier mistake because of a pricing error? No, this was a nationally advertised offer confirmed by corporate. Is he a con artist? It doesn't matter if he's a con artist, a prostitute, a minority, the President, or anybody else that YOU may deem unworthy of walking down YOUR streets since he did not commit the alleged acts.
Personally, I hope the legal system throws the book at Best Buy and makes an example of their incessant violations of consumer protection laws.
At least we agree on this one!!!! My prior mark about not respecting you was meant sarcastically Powerbomb. I do respect you, and you are quickly becoming one of my favorite adversaries since we seem to keep falling on opposite sides! And yes, I have worked in retail management or consumer service management all my life, so I'm not some crackpot that "doesn't know what it's like."

A toast to many continuing intellectual debates!

What bothers me the most about the in store pickup is that you have to wait on some horribly long line along with everyone that is doing a return.

The guy had a legit receipt from Best Buy for the video card. He tried claiming the video card that he pre-ordered and PAYED FOR. The manager then called the police (he never tried to just say that the receipt was invalid) and said it was a fake because bestbuy.com had never advertised that price (Best Buy has publicly admitted it was). Thus, the man was arrested (yes arrested, his police arrest report is public record) for fraud. As soon as the police were provided with proof that bestbuy.com HAD advertised this price and that the receipt WAS NOT a fake they let him go. This individual WAS NOT guilty of ANY crime except trying to take delivery of merchandise he PAYED for (he was never asked to leave so he's not guilty of trespass either). Best Buy has honored hundreds of these pre-orders so why was this man singled out?

Edited out some borderline insults.
-stevevt

Everyone,

I believe this topic has just entered the infamous "death spiral." It'd only go downhill from here, so I'm closing it.

If someone wants to start a Part II in order to discuss any new aspects of this story (or new points of view about it), feel free.

pyrosecht,
Please make an effort to lay off the borderline insults. I edited a couple of your comments out in the above post.

If anyone has any questions, comments, or concerns, let me know via email.

Thanks.

-stevevt